Amani (institute)

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The Amani Biological-Agricultural Institute, before 1910

The Amani Biological-Agricultural Institute in today's Tanzania was the central research institute for these tasks in the German colonies .

founding

The forerunner of the Amani Institute was the organic-agricultural test station Kwai , which was built in West Usambara in 1896 . Here Robert Koch worked on his famous black water work, which resulted from the dangers of quinine intolerance during treatment with quinine and which often led to death in Africa, especially among Europeans.

The Kwai experimental station soon became a state domain and was eventually sold to the long-term tenant Illich. The Amani Institute was founded in September 1902 at the suggestion of Franz Stuhlmann in the hinterland of the port city of Tanga , in the Usambara Mountains . At the beginning of 1903 it started its work and was led by the botanist Albrecht Zimmermann , before Karl Braun took over the institute as director, after which it was again led by Zimmermann. Zimmermann and his specialized staff worked in Amani until 1920, when the English mandate government dismissed them. From 1905 to the end of 1906, Franz Stuhlmann was personally director in Amani. The institute's own chemist at the time was Marx. Mr. Eick and initially tenant Illich (Kwai) were responsible for working with the local African workers.

Institute

At the time, the institute was the most modern of its kind on the African continent and was supposed to compete scientifically with the Dutch research institute and botanical garden in Buitenzorg on Java . When the institute was founded, a land area of ​​300 ha was allocated. Stuhlmann introduced the first systematic planting of cinchona bark trees in East Africa, which should be used for the production of quinine against malaria. Amani also directed the planting of hundreds of camphor trees in Usambara. In 1906, Robert Koch and his team (including FK Kleine, M. Beck, Robert Kudicke) stayed here as part of their research into African sleeping sickness ( African trypanosomiasis ) before they moved to Lake Victoria . Stuhlmann had brought Albrecht Zimmermann, who had worked in Buitenzorg since 1896, to Amani for botanical research and initially made him the managing director; then as deputy and in 1911 again as director. Zimmermann was primarily known as a specialist in coffee cultivation and within a short period of time had brought the institute to international recognition. It became the focus of botanical and agricultural research for all the colonial powers (Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and England) in Africa. Here fertilization research was even carried out on separate areas. One dealt with indigenous poisonous plants (e.g. Jatropha sp.), Which the natives z. B. were used as arrow poison . Plant physiology , entomology and the possibilities of pest control were just as much a part of the imperial institute's field of work, as was research into cultivation methods or local plant medicine. All microscopes in the institute came from Carl Zeiss in Jena , the glassware preferably from Lauscha . Almost all lists of the then modern laboratory equipment are still in the National Archives of Tanzania, in Dar es Salaam.

Amani was to become the largest botanical garden in the world. Accordingly, plants and trees from all over the world were planted there, of which around 3000 different species can still be found in and around Amani in 2001. Plants and seeds were collected for the Botanical Garden in Berlin-Dahlem. B. Palm seedlings to Frankfurt am Main or to the Botanical Garden of the University of Leipzig; and a herbarium was set up. Parts of it can still be found today in Lushoto (formerly Wilhelmstal).

Researches

Trial field of the cinchona tree

From 1903 to 1908 the zoologist Julius Vosseler worked in Amani. The institute cooperated closely with the Botanical Garden in Berlin and the Botanical Central Office for the German Colonies , especially with Engler, the curator for tropical plants from the colonies. The institute dealt with a. with the cultivation of "medicinal plants" such as B. the cinchona tree , the camphor tree , eucalyptus ( blue eucalyptus , Eucalyptus globulus ) or the neem tree , but also with plants that could produce narcotic effects (e.g. Indian hemp or jatropha species) for medicinal purposes. A possible use of the native aloe species was even considered.

As early as 1897, Richard Hindorf had introduced sisal cultivation in German East Africa with difficulty by circumventing the Mexican monopoly on it by purchasing plants from Florida. At that time, only 65 plants reached East Africa alive. Amani also took care of the expansion of sisal cultivation, which was to be practiced above all where coffee cultivation had proven to be uneconomical.

Robert Koch and Friedrich Karl Kleine worked in Amani in 1905 and also in 1906 in the context of research into sleeping sickness. It was here that Koch started his first tsetse fly breeding program, which Robert Kudicke had looked after since August 1905 and was given up in 1906. Research on relapsing fever and the establishment of an important tick breeding facility were also carried out here.

Aftermath

From the Amani Institute, the African violet began its triumphal march on German window sills and throughout Europe through the Count von Pückler via Hamburg and Berlin .

present

The Amani Institute still works today as a botanical-agricultural institute in Tanzania . However, it has lost its importance since 1920. His main tasks include researching new cultivation methods as well as looking after and instructing local farmers. Its once extremely important library is partly located in the University of Dar es Salaam, with which the institute cooperates very closely. There are still around 3000 different tree species in Amani. Almost nothing is left of the old cinchona tree plantations. They were almost completely destroyed in the mid to late 1960s. The Amani Institute works particularly closely with the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro and strives to maintain its influence in the country in terms of forestry. But the overall financial situation of the institute has been extremely poor for decades, and internationally recognized research projects have so far failed to materialize.

literature

  • Wilhelm Anring: German East Africa. Berlin 1939.
  • Pürschel-Trostberg: The agricultural advance of amani-institute during german colonial time. National archive of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam 2001.
  • Bernhard Zepernick: Between economy and science - the German protected area botany. In: Reports on the history of science . 13, 1990, pp. 207-217.

Web links